Dawson Hollow will be bringing its indie folk rock sound to Scout Hall

A group of five siblings has many options to do things together.

Instead of forming its own basketball team, the Link family decided a band was more its style.

Thus, Dawson Hollow.

Growing up with a musical mother who taught the siblings how to sing and play piano, the siblings play more than a dozen instruments, including the banjo, fiddle, cello, flute and mandolin.

The home state band is made up of lead singer Ben Link, along with brothers, Kyle, Aaron and John, and sister, Rachel (Link) Starnes, born in Lebanon.

Starnes said the band has a bit of a mashup of genres.

"It has been this ongoing thing trying to figure out who we are. Indie folk rock is the best umbrella to put us under, but we pull from a lot of genres," she said.

The siblings of Dawson Hollow will be in Cape Girardeau for a show at Scout Hall, 420 Broadway, on Saturday, Jan 20. Dawson Hollow has been in Cape Girardeau before, playing at last fall's Shipyard Music Festival.

At its concert, the group will have new singles to play from its upcoming album and hope to bring a high energy performance after not playing a show for a few months, band members said.

Starnes said the Link family intensely studied various types of music growing up, such as folk, Celtic, bluegrass and spiritual. The group has now branched out to include pop, rock and lots of indie music.

"Weirdly, we didn't (listen to popular music). We listened to what was on our shelves at home, and so we had cassette tapes of local folk bands and just some random pieces," Starnes said. "Later, we did start and we were like, 'Oh, my gosh, there's so much music out there.' It's made our journey a little different, not having been exposed to popular music until recently. Like in the last 10 years, we were like an overload of absorption of music to play catch up."

Having been playing music together for more than 20 years, the band has played more than 3,000 shows.

"Working with siblings definitely has its challenges, but it also has its benefits. At the end of the day, we know we love each other and have each other's backs. So if there is something musically we disagree on, sometimes it can take us a while to all get on the same page," Starnes said.

The band is in the studio working on its third album, "Boomerang".

Starnes said her brother Benjamin is the primary songwriter for the group, but Aaron is also talented in area lyric melodies. She said the band does not have a specific method to writing songs -- it can come from a melody, an idea or even random syllables.

Starnes said at the moment her favorite song the group plays, "Thousand Miles", is from its first album "Boy of My Youth". She describes the song as both angsty and vibey.

"I think part of the reason I like it is we travel for music a lot and sometimes a thousand miles. My brother wrote it when we were far from home, and it just talks about wrestling with being gone and what is my home. Just deep questions, and you don't have to be a musician to relate to it," she said.

To buy tickets for the Jan. 20 show, go to www.thescouthall.com/events/dawson-hollow.

Doors open at 7 p.m. and the concert begins at 8 p.m.

For more information about future events at Scout Hall, visit www.thescouthall.com, and for Scout Hall information plus a daily email roundup of news on food, music, events and people, check out The Scout, www.thescout.io.